HOW TO

See the Actual Signal Strength

on Your iPhone in iOS 11
BY JUSTIN MEYERS " 02/09/2018 7:05 AM

T he signal bars in your iPhone's status bar is a great

visual indicator for knowing how good your cellular
reception is, but they're not very accurate. Instead of
showing the actual amount of signal you're receiving,
they just give you a general range, and you'll have no
idea if three out of four bars is actually a good
connection or not. But there is a trick in iOS 11 to seeing
the real numbers.

This trick has actually been around for a long time, and
it would actually visually change the signal bars in your
status bar to decibel-milliwatts (dBm), the absolute unit
used to measure your reception from a cell tower. So, if
you're still running iOS 10 or lower, check out our guide
on unlocking the hidden network strength meter in your
status bar to see how it's done.

This is an iPhone running iOS 10.3.3.

Eventually, all good things must end, and iOS 11 broke

this trick, so there's no way for you to change to dBm
anymore in your status bar if you want more exact
reception data. There is, however, a way for you to see
your signal strength in dBm still, you just won't get the
convenience of it sticking around in your status bar.

Requirements
Unfortunately, in iOS 11, you can only view your 4G LTE
reception strength to the nearest cell tower if you have
an iPhone with an Intel wireless modem, not a
Qualcomm one. While you can access similar data
readings on both versions, only the following iPhone
models with the Intel wireless chips will be able to
show you the dBm you want.

iPhone X: A1901
iPhone 8: A1905
iPhone 8 Plus: A1897
iPhone 7: A1778
iPhone 7 Plus: A1784

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To see if your model number matches one of the above

iPhones, open up your Settings app, then go to General
–> About –> Legal –> Regulatory. Up at the top of the
page, you'll see your A#### model number. If your
model isn't included in the list above, you can still try
the following steps out just in case, but don't be
surprised if it doesn't work.

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Step 1

Use the Field Test Dialer Code

In order to see your current signal strength in actual
numbers, you'll need to enter Field Test mode on your
iPhone. This can be done exactly like before in iOS 10
and under, using the following code.

*3001#12345#*

So, open up your Phone app to the "Keypad" tab, type in

that code above, then follow it up by hitting the green
call button. If you see the Field Test menu that looks
like the one on the left below, you don't have an Intel
chip, but if it looks like the one on the right, you do
have an Intel chip, and you can proceed.

Qualcomm (left) vs. Intel version (right).

Step 2

Find Your Reception Numbers

From the main Field Test menu, simply select "LTE,"
then "Serving Cell Meas" on the next page. On this page,
you'll want to look at the numbers next to rsrp0 and
rsrp1
rsrp1. The former is the cell tower you're currently
connected to, while the latter is the closest backup
tower. RSRP refers to "reference signal received power."

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Step
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Determine Your Real Reception
For our purposes here, you'll only want to pay attention
to the rsrp0 numbers, which will be closest to the
digits that would appear in your status bar in older iOS
versions. The number should be displayed as a negative
number since that's how dBm signal strength is
measured. The closer the negative number is to 0, the
better your reception is. The larger the negative number
is, the worse your reception is. Then, compare your
dBM to the ones in the list below.

-90 or higher = Excellent

-91 to -105 = Good
-106 to -120 = Fair
-121 to -124 = Poor
-125 = No Signal

So, in my case, my iPhone is reading -100, which falls

into the "Good" category of reception. You can also see
that my signal bars are 4/4, which is likely because that
fourth bar includes everything from the "Good" category
and higher. So, while the reception may be good, it's not
the best it could be, though, you will rarely experience
"Excellent" reception unless you are standing next to a
cell tower, even if your iPhone says 4/4 bars.

This Is as Good as It Gets

For iPhones not running Intel cellular radio chips, you
can still dig through the Field Test menu to get an idea
of what your reception is like, but none of it is very
accurate. For instance, some people say you can use
"Measured RSRP" to calculate your actual reception, but
in my experience, it's completely inaccurate. The
"Measured RSSI" number may also be noteworthy since
it stands for "received signal strength indicator," but
again, in my experience, this just is nowhere near
accurate.

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Maybe one day the Field Test tool will be just as useful
as it was on iOS 10 and under, but right now, it looks
like it's only going to get worse. Plus, any apps that
could read this data before can't function anymore in
iOS 11, so if you were hoping for a quick way to see
your reception in dBm using a third-party app, you'll be
sorely disappointed.

Don't Miss: 20 Cool New Features in iOS 11.3

for iPhone

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